Jackson Mayor & Town Council Votes

Town and County adopted new housing mitigation requirements to balance job growth, development, and the need for housing. Our quality of life and community character require that we sustain a true local community, not just a resort, where at least 65% of our local workers can afford to live here, as outlined in the 2012 Comprehensive Plan. New developments that create jobs now have to provide housing for more
of the year-round, full-time employees they generate. The developers also get “density bonuses” so they can build bigger buildings to economically fit the employee housing.

The District 3-6 residential zoning in Jackson was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to locate future growth where it belongs. Developers are constantly pushing to upzone, annex, and build on open space and wildlife habitat, such as Northern South Park and Hog Island. We hear the argument that if there isn’t political will to locate additional workforce housing in Town, then large open spaces will be the “escape valve.” Instead, conservationists asked our Town Council to be bold: to allow more density within our existing footprint, especially in Town, and become a national model of a strong community living in balance with nature.

Following a request from local conservation hero Patty Ewing and other community members, Town Council asked Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF) to extend the “scoping comment” period to collect public input for the Snow King Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Teton County representatives echoed this request. As a result, the BTNF extended the public commenting period to 62 days instead of the minimum 30. This gave the public more time to get informed about the developers’ proposals and weigh in for Snow King to succeed as our town hill, not an amusement park.

The Town Council submitted their own letter to BTNF during the initial comment period for the Snow King
EIS. They wrote a well-balanced letter, identifying key issues of the proposal. It states: “Construction of the access road raises concerns about potential rock slides, landslides and avalanches, as well as visual impacts to the community. The proposed zip line may further erode community character, create parking challenges, impact Phil Baux Park and create noise impacts for neighbors. Furthermore, the town may not approve a landing site on town land at the base...Also, the range of alternatives for development should include a net-zero increase of current resort boundary acreage.”

The new plastic bag ordinance has established disposable bag requirements for the Town of Jackson. Plastic pollution is a worldwide problem - according to the Center for Biological Diversity, up to 80 percent of ocean plastic pollution enters the ocean from land and plastic bags kill 100,000 marine animals annually. Effective April 15, 2019 for larger grocery stores and November 1, 2019 for smaller retailers, businesses can no longer provide single-use plastic bags at the point-of-sale to customers. However, shoppers can pay a Waste Reduction Fee of Twenty Cents ($0.20) for paper bags at checkout. Of the $0.20, half goes to the retailer and the other half goes towards the Teton County waste reduction program.